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We have public relations signs on the bus. The public relation signs – they say anything from Happy Holidays to Merry Christmas to St. Patrick’s Day. Now, the other day, we always keep these public relations signs on. We have a gentleman that’s a driver and he’s a born-again Christian – a very Christian person. Every day he puts on his public relations sign [showing] God Bless America. Now, he was called in the other day and he was told that he is no longer allowed to put God Bless America on top of the public relations sign from here on out.
Had this driver ever asked permission to post that sign?
Well, it’s not a question of permission. It’s something that’s been done as long as we had those public relations signs. There’s never been an issue and then two days ago all of the sudden he was called in and told, ‘Look, people can find these offensive and you can no longer put God Bless America up on your sign from here on out.’ […] Obviously, [the driver’s] upset because he feels I have the right to free speech just as other people have the right to free speech. And COLTS’ policy, with their board of directors’ policy, is saying ‘Well, you’re employed here and we’re telling you that we do not want God Bless America on the top of our buses.’ But yet we live in America, we work in America, and we — whether you support this great country or not — from here on out you’re not allowed to say God Bless America because you’re going to offend the wrong people. […] This seems to all go coincide with each other now [sic]. When they rejected the atheist advertisement, all of the sudden we can’t put this God Bless America like we’ve been doing for all of these years.